CSBG Archive

Tom Bondurant’s Annotations for Trinity issue #28

Hi-ho, Trinity fans! I hope you enjoyed Brian’s fill-in as much as I did. I am tanned (okay, not really), and only semi-rested, but I am definitely ready. Warm up the Google — it’s good to be back!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Those We Have Lost” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The League of Extraordinary BFFs holds a seance.

Page 1

— “This can’t be any mystic nexus-site”: of course not! That kind of thing is in Florida.

— “The Flying Graysons” were (in case I hadn’t mentioned it previously) acrobats John and Mary Grayson, Dick’s parents, introduced in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940). In regular continuity, they were killed by Boss Zucco’s gangsters; here, it sounds like that still happened, except that Zucco (instead of Bruce Wayne) adopted Dick.

Page 2

— No annotations.

Page 3

— “Happy Harbor, Rhode Island”: Happy Harbor was introduced in The Brave and the Bold vol. 1 #28 (February-March 1960), as the home of JLA mascot Lucas “Snapper” Carr. That makes this cave the “Secret Sanctuary,” the original JLA’s first headquarters (also introduced in B&B #28).

— After the League relocated to its first satellite headquarters almost exactly ten years later (in Justice League of America vol. 1 #78 (February 1970)), the Secret Sanctuary went unoccupied for several years. However, eventually it was used by a variety of super-teams; including the Doom Patrol, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Young Justice, and other incarnations of the League itself.

— I want to say that only recently (say, in the last 15-20 years) did the texts place the Secret Sanctuary outside Happy Harbor; and in fact I think Happy Harbor was “officially” placed in Rhode Island around the same time. However, the Rhode Island location may be part of DC lore going back a little further, perhaps to the same source (the DC role-playing game?) which placed Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City in New Jersey.

Page 4

— “Gitchika Maumee” refers to the bat-god from World’s Finest Comics #255 (February-March 1979), as I guessed back in week 19.

— “Sonzrr”: also back in week 19, eagle-eyed commenter CandidGamera ID’ed the emblem as being from 1977’s Superman Spectacular #5.

— “Chains of submission”: hey, let’s see what kind of searches we can draw with that phrase! Of course, a common theme of the Amazons’ collective “origin” is their capture and humiliation at the hands of Heracles and his men.

— “No need to hold hands”: although if they did, the allusion would be clearer. In Justice League of America vol. 1 #21 (August 1963), the League uses a crystal ball and seance to bring the Justice Society to its Earth, where they can fight the villains whose magic has trapped the League in, yes, its cave headquarters.

Page 5

— “I’ll bring the medi-kit”: I have probably mentioned previously that “our” Alfred is trained as a field medic.

Page 6

— No annotations.

Page 7

— No annotations.

Page 8

— No annotations.

Page 9

— These appear to be Konvikt’s … excuse me, Xalitan Xor’s people; although it may be further back in the technological development of his planet.

— “The patterned men”: Mr. Xor seemed to have a double-M pattern on his head, but I’m just spitballing here.

Page 10

— The Night-Judge’s necklace almost looks like it’s made out of those cylindrical capsules from the older version of Batman’s utility belt.

— Slightly different set of characters than we saw at the end of last issue, but that’s OK. Clockwise from the top left, they look like Prysm, Negative Man, Negative Woman, Obsidian, Doctor Light II, T-V Man, Tattooed Man II/Sun-Chained-In-Ink, Primat, Bolt, Swashbuckler, Sparx, Brimstone, Gentleman Ghost, and the Folded Man.

— Negative Man, a/k/a Larry Trainor, was a founding member of the original Doom Patrol. Created by Bob Haney, Arnold Drake, and Bruno Premani, he first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963).

— Negative Woman, a/k/a Valentina Vostok, was a founding member of the New Doom Patrol. She was created by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton and first appeared in Showcase #94 (August-September 1977).

— [I was under the impression that there was only one Negative Spirit, which migrated from Larry to Val and — in Doom Patrol vol. 2 #19 (February 1989) — eventually merged Larry with Dr. Eleanor Poole to form Rebis … but there are, after all, limits to my knowledge.]

— Obsidian, a/k/a Todd Rice, was created by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway and first appeared in All-Star Squadron #25 (September 1983). Alan Scott is his father, which makes the JSI’s involvement a little more interesting.

— [At first I thought Obsidian was Black Mass, and I had a nice little line in his micro-bio. Here goes: “Black Mass, a/k/a Geoffrey Thibodeaux, is like the Tom Joad of C-list supervillains: wherever there’s a crowd scene in need of filling out, he’ll be there.” Too good to waste, I know.]

— Doctor Light III, a/k/a Arthur Light, was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky and first appeared in Justice League of America vol. 1 #12 (June 1962). In current continuity, the Spectre sent him to his “final reward,” as it were, in Final Crisis: Revelations #1 (October 2008).

— Bolt, a/k/a Larry Bolatinsky, was created by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and Paris Cullins, and first appeared in Blue Devil #6 (November 1984).

— Sparx, a/k/a Donna Carol Force, was created by Karl Kesel, Tom Grummett, and Ed Hannigan, and first appeared in The Adventures Of Superman Annual #5 (1993). She was the “New Blood” character introduced therein as part of the “Bloodlines” crossover.

— Brimstone, a creature born of Apokoliptian technology, was created by John Ostrander, Len Wein, and John Byrne, and first appeared in Legends #1 (November 1986).

— The Gentleman Ghost, a/k/a James “Gentleman Jim” Craddock, was created by Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert and first appeared in the Hawkman story in Flash Comics #88 (October 1947).

— The Folded Man, a/k/a Edwin Gauss, was created by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Paul Pelletier, and first appeared in The Flash vol. 2 #153 (October 1999).

Page 14/2

— No annotations.

Page 15/3

— I notice that Starfire hasn’t had to change her costume too much to fit in with the JSI….

— This is not the first time that Alan Scott has been de-aged. (I almost said “youthenized,” but that would have been wrong.) It happened somewhere around Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #5 (Summer 1993), and it resulted in a costume change almost identical to the one shown here.

— Roll call … of SCIENCE! Doctor Will Magnus created the Metal Men, built a couple of Cliff Steele’s robot bodies, and helps prop up the pipe-tobacco industry. Thomas Oscar “T.O.” Morrow created the Red Tornado and Tomorrow Woman, both designed to destroy the Justice League, but who both ended up joining. You know Lex Luthor already, of course; back in the purple-and-green we all love. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana is one of Captain Marvel’s greatest foes, and he knows Cap’s secret identity to boot. Finally, John Henry Irons was so inspired by Superman that he became a “Man of Steel” himself.

— Will Magnus was created by Bob Kanigher and Ross Andru and first appeared in Showcase #37 (March-April 1962).

— T.O. Morrow was created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino and first appeared in The Flash vol. 1 #143 (March 1964).

— Sivana was created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck and first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940).

— John Henry Irons was created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove and first appeared in The Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993). He built a suit of battle armor designed to evoke Superman’s costume, and paired it with a technologically-advanced hammer. Although he was a “replacement Superman,” I don’t think he ever seriously adopted that codename, settling eventually on “Steel.”

Page 19/7

— No annotations.

Page 20/8

— “I like it when they think they’re tough”: you know, after Identity Crisis, that line’s a lot more unsettling. Personally, I can go a long, long time without being reminded of Doctor Light’s sordid tastes.

Page 21/9

— “Plastino Bridge”: named, I presume, for Al Plastino, longtime Superman artist of the 1950s and co-creator of Kara Zor-El and the three original Legionnaires.

Page 22/10

— Is Tomorrow Woman an android in this timeline? If not, this latest development is doubly bad.

* * *

It feels like last issue and this issue have been concerned largely with getting all the players in their places. Rita and Charity are in Opal City; the JSI is coordinating superheroes to fight Morgaine and other crises; the BFFs are on the Trinity’s trail; and Green Lantern, Despero, and Krona are in space. Meanwhile, Konvikt has joined the Troika. Obviously, at some point these subplots must all converge; and I kinda get the feeling that not much more setup can be wrung out of this act.

Anyway, that’s all I have this time. Thanks for stopping by; and I’ll see you next week!

— Tarot at her apartment, with the cards turning into the Trinity
— Green Arrow and Speedy confronted by Ragman and Tatters
— Konvikt and Graak meeting Enigma and Morgaine
— The LOEBFFs standing before Mount Trinity

And yeah, this week’s “d’oh!” is me not picking up on the different prisons and prisoners. I was just so excited to remember the Folded Man, you know?

rwe1138

I’m still a little confused. So is Sun-Chained-In-Ink another alter-ego of Mark Richards, or has SCII taken over Mark’s body? Or is this just an alternative universe thing, and back in the regular DCU they’re two different people.

Kurt Busiek

>> So is Sun-Chained-In-Ink another alter-ego of Mark Richards, or has SCII taken over Markâ€™s body? Or is this just an alternative universe thing, and back in the regular DCU theyâ€™re two different people.>>

The original Sun-Chained blew up.

The Dreambound have recreated him — or at least his powers — by getting Mark Richards to channel that same power.

kdb

PyroTwilight

Yeah I’ll go with Tommie being an android in this timeline given all the metal in her. Of course this once again makes me wonder if she’s on the J.S.I as a sleeper as she was in the League in JLA #5. Especially since she’s mentioned her quadrilobed mutant brain before which was part of her cover in JLA#5 to explain her origin to the League.

Aparo Park is in Gotham, yes. Although I seem to recall seeing a Hotel of the same ilk in Deathstroke early on, so perhaps an Aparo Bridge somewhere else in the Kane/Gotham Counties region likely wouldn’t be amiss either.

Further note of a memory refreshing nature: I just re-checked the No Man’s Land map of Gotham by our good friend Mr. Brown. Seems there’s a bridge of sorts labelled “Aparo Expressway” running over the mouth of Miller Harbor on the eastern side of South Gotham Island.